News & Events

Signature Retail Services President, Dan Perry recently attended the 2018 Home Depot Foundation Event in Marco Island. He was part of a huge effort to take care of local veterans and aide communities impacted by natural disasters; providing hard work building custom dog beds for PAWS – Assistance Dogs for veterans and specially designed playhouses for veteran families to enjoy together. The event raised $8.3 million!

“We heard from many of the local service-dog owners, veterans and families how touched they were by your efforts and the investment you made into their community. We could not be more appreciative of your time!” Home Depot Foundation

Ray Ballard has been named a Senior Project Manager with Signature Retail Services, which is a premier sales, service and construction (fixture installation / new store / remodel / reset) company which provides a full suite of retail services. He will be based out of our Atlanta office and will provide leadership within the Capital Improvement sector of our Construction Division.

Ballard joins Signature Retail Services with 19 years of experience in the Home Improvement Retail merchandising, service and construction industry. Ray has a strong history working directly for powerful retailers like The Home Depot, Sears and Advance Auto Parts. For the past 8 years he has been a member of management for a large Merchandising Services Organization. Ray’s initial focus will be the oversight of the in field execution of our capital improvement initiatives throughout the Southeast while developing talent to allow us to increase our capacity in this region.

Ray lives in Sharpsburg, GA with his wife Jae. He attended George Mason University and played basketball and ran track.

Signature Retail Services President Dan Perry “Ray is a proven, respected leader in the retail construction industry, and we are excited to welcome him to the SRS team”. “We believe his strong experience, particularly in field leadership skills, strategic planning, and project management, will be extremely valuable as SRS continues strengthening our operations “.

We’re so grateful you could join us last week in Colorado for the extremely successful Decor Foundation fundraising event! Your event raised $7.8 million because of dedicated supporters like you. We appreciate your commitment to take care of our veterans and communities impacted by natural disasters.

Thank you so much for your hard work at Fort Carson and Greccio Housing. The students are thrilled to use their new playground and outdoor classroom in just a few weeks! The residents at the Greccio Housing facilities are humbled by the investment you made into their lives and could not be more thankful.

Because we reached our #ServiceSelfie challenge, the school will get upgrades to the teachers’ lounge and Greccio will receive renovations to its food pantry.

Media Relations

Several local media outlets covered the projects resulting in 809,000 impressions. You can see some of the coverage below.

We wanted to share the videos from general session that show how we are putting your dollars to work. You can help us amplify the difference we’re making together by sharing these in your company and on social media.

Be on the lookout for an email with a link to an online photo gallery of all of the event photos. Thank you again for your continued support of our efforts! We look forward to seeing you again next year if not sooner.

Signature Retail Group was proud to once again join the Home Depot Foundation, this time in California for the extremely successful Building Materials Foundation fundraising event. The event raised $5.99 million tpo help take care of our veterans and communities impacted by natural disasters. Our teams’ went to Camp Pendleton to update Guard House and the K9 training facility.

Signature Retail Services was honored to join Home Depot in Napa for an extremely successful fundraising event! The event raised $4.26 million to help take care of our veterans and communities impacted by natural disasters.

All this hard work at the Yountville California Veterans Home helped create accessible and functional outdoor spaces. The veteran residents are humbled and extremely grateful for your generosity! It was so amazing to hear their stories and be a part of that day.

Signature Retail was proud to partner with Home Depot in San Diego for the extremely successful Building Materials Foundation fundraising event! The event raised $5.2 million to help take care of our veterans and communities impacted by natural disasters. We framed five homes and created 25 custom playhouses!

Members of SRS’ management team participated with The Home Depot and other Industry Vendor Partners recently in Colorado and in support of #DoingMore4Vets in Colorado! There are 300+ orange shirt volunteers on the ground creating Habitat affordable housing for veterans and transforming VFW Post #1980. THD SVP Giles Bowman rallies the volunteers for a great cause, their hard work and job well done; also presents a “new” home welcome gift – “Homer Buckets – loaded with gift cards & supplies” to the future 9 residents (Homer Buckets were Sponsored by SRS).

The 2016 Retail Merchandising and Marketing Conference is a unique and exciting opportunity for companies in the retail merchandising and in-store marketing space to mingle among your peers. Delve into the minds of retailers and manufacturers, learn from one another, experience new retail technology and services on our trade show floor and allow the knowledge obtained to be converted into tangible, actionable ideas for your business!

Signature Retail Services and The Home Depot partner to remodel THD Store 6663 in Baldwin Park, CA. The “Aging Project” takes an older store and gives it the “New Store” feel and look. The project was completed over 2 weeks and involved the demolition of old fixtures and graphics along with the installation of new racking, graphics and service desks.

We’re extremely proud of the entire Signature Retail Services Team that participated in this project.

Las Vegas — Ace had plenty to congratulate its members for at the General Session here at the Ace Hardware Spring Market.

In 2015, the co-op made $5.05 billion in revenue (that’s up 7.3%), as well as logged a 10% increase in consolidated net income. Domestic retail same-store sales grew 4.6%, and that’s not even counting various forms of recognition it received (it was #24 on the NRF’s Hot 100 Retailers, as well as the #2 happiest retailer to work for according to Forbes).

Not ones to rest on their laurels, Ace executives spent the majority of the General Session discussing the various ways in which they’ll be helping members pick up the ball during the fourth quarter this year.

Signature Retail Services was recently featured in US Builders Review, a nationally recognized trade publication read by a targeted audience of general contractors, developers and other leaders in the construction industry. Click here to see the whole story.

City of Hope is recognized worldwide for its compassionate patient care, innovative science and translational research, which rapidly turns laboratory breakthroughs into promising new therapies. SRS attended the event to assist in supporting this great charity and their fund raising efforts.

The 2015 Retail Merchandising and Marketing Conference is a unique and exciting opportunity for companies in the retail merchandising and in-store marketing space to mingle among our peers. The conference was infused with excitement and energy from the beginning and delved into the minds of retailers and manufacturers, learning from one another, experiencing new retail technology and services on the trade show floor and allowing the knowledge obtained to be converted into tangible, actionable ideas for our industry business!

Signature Retail Services, a best-in-class retail merchandising organization that provides services to leading brands and retailers across all 50 states, has selected Natural Insight for end-to-end labor management.

“Our sole mission is to support our customers with superior retail merchandising and construction services combined with continuous process improvements, innovative technology, and rich data reporting,” said Dan Perry, President of Signature Retail Services. “We partnered with Natural Insight because their technology platform provides us with the integrated workforce management capabilities that we need to continue to grow and deliver on our mission.”

“Signature Retail Services is a well known and proven leader in the retail merchandising industry and we share their passion for customer service and excellence in retail operations,” said, Stefan Midford, president and CEO of Natural Insight. “We’re honored to be selected as their technology partner and we look forward to supporting them as they continue to grow.”

Reno Fricano has been named Vice President of Sales and Marketing with The Signature Group. Signature Group holdings include Signature Retail Services (SRS) and Signature Engineered Solutions (SES). SRS is a premier retail and industrial sales, logistics, service and construction (fixture installation/new store/remodel/reset) company which provides a full suite of services. SES is a premier supplier of specialty engineered components to the Automotive and Commercial Vehicle Industries including Heavy Truck. Reno will be based out of our Chicago Corporate office and he will provide leadership to both business Units.

Fricano joins The Signature Group with over 25 years of experience in the Automotive, Commercial Vehicle, Construction and Distribution industries. He has extensive experience in multiple disciplines including Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgical Science, Lean Manufacturing, Sales Management and Quality Engineering. He has held executive positions with industry leaders representing some of the world’s leading manufacturers and distributors of specialty engineered attachment solutions. He has led winning teams at virtually every vehicle and heavy equipment manufacturer in North America as well as other key accounts in Industrial and commercial based markets. As the Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Reno will bring value added logistics solutions to our very diverse and growing customer base. In addition, he will expand our breadth of products to new and existing markets. Fricano has lived in the Greater Chicagoland area for 15 years with his wife and two daughters. He is a graduate of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada with a Bachelor of Science degree and has also completed executive programs at the University of Michigan and the Max Fisher School of Business at The Ohio State University.

Fricano has a proven track record of building winning teams who are capable of delivering world class results while competing on a global scale. He has a passion for quality and a history of driving continuous improvement through every department of an organization.

Signature Group’s President Dan Perry states “This leadership appointment strengthens our senior management team. Reno will continue to build his strong track record of delivery in our fast-growing logistics and specialty engineered components segment. Reno brings an incredible set of global leadership experiences, a consistent pattern of excellent results, and immense personal potential to the company as we continue the drive to make Signature Group a larger, faster growing, more profitable, more global company.”

SRS is proud to work with Ace Hardware over the years. Their record earnings, sales and overall success has been highlighted in the current edition of Forbes Magazine:

How Ace Hardware Turned Corner Stores Into a $4.7 Billion Co-Op

When Jeremy Melnick’s grandfather opened his first Ace Hardware store along Chicago’s ritzy Gold Coast in 1950, there wasn’t a whole lot of competition. Wal-Mart? An Arkansas five-and-dime. Lowe’s was two stores in North Carolina. Home DepotHD-0.24% was still 29 years away from opening its first location. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was 14 years shy of being born.

The Melnicks — Jeremy, 43, and dad Les, 67 — own six of the 4,794 Ace Hardware stores that make up the country’s largest retail cooperative outside the grocery sector.

As they’ve expanded their family business-within-a-business into a local chain, some 20 Home Depots have cropped up along greater Chicago’s highways and strip malls in the past two decades, each 100,000 square feet (versus the Melnicks’ 8,000-square-foot corner stores). “They surround us,” Jeremy says.

Not that he’s complaining. Despite the competition, his business is good. Surprisingly good. And so is Ace Hardware’s bottom line. The Oak Brook, Ill. co-op expects a year-on-year revenue increase of 13% to about $4.7 billion and a profit boost of 35% when it releases its 2014 annual report in April, following eight consecutive quarters of record sales.

Orlando, Florida — Financing and technology were among the new-and-improved tools that Ace Hardware executives rolled out onto the stage of the Ace Hardware general session here Wednesday morning.

At the same session, the co-op rallied around the morning’s slogan “Building Momentum,” and executives had statistics to back it up.

So far this year, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based co-op says year-to-date revenue is up nearly 15%, same-store sales are up 4.2%, and net income is up more than 50%, the company said.

Ace CEO John Venhuizen kicked off the proceedings with an examination of the ingredients of great companies, including financial superiority, distinctive impact and lasting endurance. He told the assembled retailers: “You can compete and win against the publicly traded big boys, and you can do it for generations.”

Stewart Glisson has been named a Senior Director of Accounts with Signature Retail Services, which is a premier retail sales, service and construction (fixture installation/new store/remodel/reset) company which provides a full suite of retail services. He will be based out of our Atlanta office and will provide leadership within our Business Development and Construction Divisions for the company.

Glisson joins Signature Retail Services with 14 years of experience in the Home Improvement Retail merchandising, service and construction industry. Within the past 10 years, he has held executive positions with nationally recognized merchandising companies and has worked with many leading suppliers and home centers nationwide. As a Senior Director of Accounts, he maintains and manages new and existing accounts, regularly calls on client headquarters and store locations regarding project development and execution. Stewart lives in Atlanta, GA with his wife and two sons. He attended Middle Tennessee State University.

Stewart has a proven track record of delivering top and bottom-line growth for both large and small companies within the industry and brings to Signature Retail Services a keen eye for finance with management experience behind him, and has established and built many industry relationships within both the retailer and vendor community. Signature Retail Services President Dan Perry “Stewart will be a great fit for our leadership team as we continue to grow our business model across the retail market place”.

Ace 2014 Spring Convention & Exhibits

Houston — Ace executives took the stage to deliver rousing speeches at the General Session of the Ace 2014 Spring Convention & Exhibits, congratulating retailers on a strong 2013 and outlining the co-op’s vision for 2014 and beyond.

Ace even had a proprietary rock ‘n’ roll theme song dedicated to its strategic initiative, “20/20 Vision,” which added a spirited component to a slide show presented at the session. “The view is worth the climb,” crooned the singer.

The company looked back at the recent Emery-Waterhouse acquisition, the roll-out of new B2B wholesaling program The Supply Place, the launch of the Ace-Valspar Paint Studio, the Helpful 101 customer service certification program, exceeded sales and profitability goals, and Ace’s 90-year-anniversary.

Signature Retail Service Inc. Training, Building and Promoting Store Success

Produced by JohnCarloti & Written by.Molly Shaw

Dan Perry ended up in the home improvement industry by chance, never imagining just a short time later he would become president of Signature Retail Service Inc. (SRS), one of the largest national turnkey in-store service support and retail construction companies. SRS provides everything from professional product training and display assistance for manufacturers and retailers in addition to project management and new store set up for some of the most recognized corporations in the U.S., including Home Depot, Target, Wal-Mart, Ace Hardware and Menards.

Perry, who’s now been with SRS for about eight years, found a career path in turning his part-time job into a long­ term career. “I started working in home improvement stores to supplement my income throughout college,” he recalls. “I stayed in touch with the company owner over the years and he ultimately lured me back into the industry.”

As an alliance of at-retail companies, our members are entrusted with delivering exceptional sales, marketing and service support to B2C manufacturers and retailers across all sectors, channels and countries involved in the retail industry. We have put in place an accredited certification program and are building out a significantly enhanced online workforce training system for members. These programs, when utilized, will provide validation of company and workforce capability and training — key business indicators deemed critical in the coming years.

GlobalShop is the world’s largest annual event for retail design and shopper marketing. It’s the only show in the world where you can find the largest, most comprehensive array of store fixture companies and more in-store solutions than any live event in the nation.

Ace Hardware welcomes all of it’s dealers, prospective investors and suppliers to discover the latest merchandise offerings available to the Ace Hardware brand. Signature Retail Services is a preferred merchandising and fixture installation partner to Ace Hardware.

The International CES attracts more than 140,000 of the top executives, retail buyers, content providers, entertainment executives, venture capitalists, engineers, government officials and media from more than 140 countries.

WOC is the industry’s only annual international event dedicated to the commercial concrete and masonry construction industries showcasing leading industry suppliers featuring innovative products, technologies, tools and equipment and unlimited networking opportunities to give you new ways to sustain and grow your business.

The International Home + Housewares Show offers you the opportunity to see first-hand consumer lifestyle and product trends for all areas of the home, both inside and out, under one roof. Housewares products are categorized into four show-within-a-show expos.

KBIS is the premier event for the industry. See the latest products, learn about cutting-edge design trends and technology, build relationships with existing suppliers and establish new vendor connections, network with other professionals, and add to educational experiences.

City of Hope is recognized worldwide for its compassionate patient care, innovative science and translational research, which rapidly turns laboratory breakthroughs into promising new therapies. SRS attended the event to assist in supporting this great charity and their fund raising efforts.